156 Botanic Drugs 



eral species of "yams" are edible. There has been 

 a disagreement over the activity of dioscorea, partly 

 due to the glabrous variety being used instead of 

 the true one. Also proprietary medicine interests 

 have made altogether too sweeping claims regarding 

 it. Conservative medical literature has never 

 claimed more for it than that it contains an acrid 

 resin which is emetic in large doses and in small 

 doses may not be definitely classed. But empir- 

 ically, and from much credited clinical testimony, 

 it has been used extensively in painful abdominal 

 neuroses manifested as various forms of colic and 

 the so-called cholera morbus. The various forms of 

 enteralgia are more or less amenable to the acrid 

 antispasmodics of minor importance. I have found 

 the fl. dioscorea in 10- to 30-minim doses in hot 

 water to give relief from the cramps and pain in 

 these conditions. Manifestly it is not good thera- 

 peutics to omit purgatives, alkalies, and other indi- 

 cated remedies; but, in many cases, dioscorea is a 

 symptomatic remedy worth while. See also "Colo- 

 cynth" in this connection. 



DROSERA 



SUNDEW, Drosera rotundifolia. Official in France 

 and Mexico. The plant contains a peculiar acid 

 whose character has not been defined, and an acrid 

 resin. The drug has attained a reputation in the 

 treatment of irritable and spasmodic cough, as 

 whooping cough and the cough of measles. Give the 

 fl. in doses of 5 to 30 minims. 



I find it hard to estimate the real value of this 

 drug or to determine its effective dosage. Dry and 

 irritable cough is notoriously hard to relieve. We 



